First kiss, and then some
by loboscuro
Summary: A sequel to A Complete Crush. Each chapter is an independent event. Abrupt ending - sorry guys D:
1. First kiss

**First kiss, and then some**

a sequel to _A Complete Crush_

* * *

**Author's Note**

Review of A Complete Crush, "BabyBluewinx: they didn't even kiss at the end."

This is for you especially, but also for all the rest of you AWESOME reviewers who absolutely inspired me to continue and eventually finish _A Complete Crush_. Hope that you like it.

ANY thoughts, please review. If you have time, check out my Detty video on Youtube please - /watch?vphheRiWBMN8

Thanks so much!

* * *

They were in the lift.

Daniel was on her right, holding his briefcase in front of him with both hands, wearing his long black overcoat. They both faced the lift doors.

Betty looked over and up at him.

Their eyes met.

Daniel smiled, and Betty felt drawn into those baby blues...

Then with a strange fluidity, the scene switched, skipping over where they were supposed to move towards each other - and they were kissing_._

And then in Betty's ear, Daniel's voice; _Sofia_.

* * *

Betty shot straight up in bed, screaming (_AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!_) through the metal contraption that held her mouth open anyway, screaming on and on and on until -

"Betty?!" Hilda burst into the room. "Ai, mama, what is your _problem_ -" She sat down next to her sister and clutched her to her side. "Betty! Stop it!"

Betty shut her mouth and stared dazedly. "Hilda - is that you?" She pinched her sister on the arm.

"_Ouch_!" Hilda let go of Betty and grabbed her offended arm. "_Betty_!"

"I had a dream," Betty said, sagging slightly from her rigid position as the nightmarish haze faded eventually. "Daniel kissed me - I mean, I kissed him - well, we were kissing anyways."

"Like your Henry dream?" Hilda asked. "But what's wrong with this one? This is _good_! I mean, you two are in _love_, Betty, or have you forgotten? It's about _time_ you two did something. I mean, I guess it could be kinda weird, you two being best friends for so long, but..."

"No, listen," Betty said. "And then Daniel was like, _'Sofia_.'"

Hilda stared at Betty. "What?"

"_Exactly_!" Betty wailed. "Tell me it was just a stupid dream."

"It was just a stupid dream," Hilda said, in a placating tone. "Remember my dream about Jose -"

"Yes, yes, I do," Betty said. "But -"

"It was just a dream and dreams don't mean anything," Hilda said, cutting smoothly into Betty's protestation. "And _really_, Betty - _Sofia_? That was _ages_ ago, and she was an absolute _cow_ -" she laughed. "Why on earth would Daniel - why would you even remember her?"

"But my Henry dream!" Betty wailed, avoiding Hilda's reasoning. "That came true! Look what happened there!"

"That," Hilda said, "was a coincidence. Geez, calm down, woman. Sometimes I wonder if Daniel is good for you." As she spoke she did her classic Hilda one-finger-pointing-up-hand-rotation movement.

Seeing the look on Betty's face, Hilda said, hastily, "Sorry. Bad joke."

* * *

**Betty**

Right. This is really simple, Betty Suarez. Just do not be in the lift with Daniel. No lift means no kiss, which means no dreaded 'Sofia' remark! Simple! And no, you are _not _being paranoid. You're just being...cautious. Yep. Nothing wrong with caution!

_Paranoid_.

Am not!

* * *

**The third day of caution**

"Gotcha."

Stunned, she halted abruptly on the third step of the last flight of stairs up to the twenty-eighth floor. Looking up, she was greeted by a triumphant but slightly perplexed looking Daniel.

"Christina said she saw you taking the stairs when she came in yesterday," Daniel said. "And you really are...Betty, why are you avoiding...the lift?"

"Oh!" Betty said, stalling and casting about wildly as she climbed the last few steps. "Um. Well! I'm not avoiding the lift, Daniel! I'm just...being fit! You know. Fitness first!" She grinned at him and brushed past, hurrying to her desk.

* * *

**Betty**

Oh, crap. Did I just give him his very own cheesy thumbs-up-plus-grin?

* * *

Daniel followed after her. "Betty -"

He leaned on both arms on Betty's desk, from the front, the way she usually did on his desk. "Betty. Look, if you weren't my assistant I would think you were avoiding me. But since that is obviously impossible, I'm forced to assume that you are avoiding meeting me in the elevator."

Betty stared at him.

"Help me understand why you might do that?" He said, smiling sweetly at her.

"Oh, but I'm not," Betty said. "Avoiding you, that is. Why is it so hard to believe that I want to just take some extra exercise?" She switched on her computer and shuffled some papers as she spoke, avoiding his eyes, but when no response to her weak excuse reached her ears she was forced to look up at him.

Daniel's smile had morphed into a smirk she was not used to having directed at herself, the smirk which had promised good things - physically, at least - to many a Daniel-Meade-girl. It was stranger than she thought it would be, this slow but sure addition of romance to friendship.

Her eyes were fixed on his face, and she felt a rush of love and excitement at the strange new emotions occupying her, body soul and mind.

His gaze moved to her lips, and their hearts began to beat faster, and Betty leaned forward half-rising from her seat and Daniel leaned further down, his hands reaching and gently touching her face. Their lips met, just the slightest touch, but it was so different - and so bizarrely pleasant and exciting and - just so different.

Daniel broke the kiss and straightened, running a hand backward through his hair, and it was obvious from the rise and fall of his chest his rapid breathing.

Their eyes met and they both grinned, almost in a silly way, both utterly ecstatic and overwhelmed.

Daniel reached for her hands and brought them into his office, closing his door, hiding behind the meager width of wall between the circular windows on the office door and the wide glass panel that meant the rest of the office was entirely visible to the outer Mode office.

"I have a theory," he whispered, his voice low and almost frighteningly sexy beside Betty's ear. God, she was not used to this.

"And what's that?" she said, matching his volume.

"That you're avoiding me because you're afraid I might do...this," he said, and turning her face slowly to face him he captured her lips in a kiss that was significantly more than lip-only.

"Oh, we can't do this now," Betty said, withdrawing a hand which had been (rather frighteningly, again, for her) snaking under his jacket and up the hard muscles of his back through the fabric of his purple shirt. She finally broke the kisses which were rapidly progressing toward serious making out. "We're at work! Now, Daniel, I have to get back to my desk." With her responsible assistant expression firmly in place, she tucked her hair behind her ears, adjusted her glasses and marched out of the office with a bright assistant smile and Daniel.

Filled with love, face painted with a smile he felt nobody, _nobody_, could wipe off at that moment, Daniel watched Betty sit down at her desk. His Betty, oh so familiar and yet so much more to know about her.

* * *

"So? What happened at work today?" Hilda asked, noting happily that Justin was upstairs and Papi in the kitchen.

Betty looked up at her sister with a silly happy smile. "We kissed."

"Oh, Betty!" Hilda gushed. "That is so great."

"And you know, I realised something," Betty said, assuming a serious expression.

"Yep?"

"I'm not the first Daniel has kissed."

Hilda stared at her sister briefly, then laughed, holding up a finger. "Now that, chica, is _far_ from adequate."

Betty rolled her eyes. "Okay, okay. I mean, I'm not the first one in this _family_ that Daniel has kissed." She grinned.

Hilda looked confused. "Huh? Me?"

"No, duh. Hello? Fashion week?"

"Oh," Hilda said, realisation dawning on her face. "Oh, _right_." She grinned. "Oh, yeah. I _am_ good. But that was _hardly_ a kiss, Betty. More like a drunken...peck."

Betty raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I'll bet it was nothing like anything you got," Hilda said, standing up and putting a hand on her hip.

Betty busied herself with her handbag, and with a loud _ha!_ of triumph Hilda went grinning to check on Justin.

* * *

"So that's fine," Betty sighed, over her cereal, to Hilda the next morning. "I can finally take the lift again!"

"Really? How come?"

"You know, my dream? We've _had_ our first kiss so the lift dream can't happen now..."

"But how do you know it was the first kiss in the dream?" Hilda remarked off handedly, busy with a batch of '_coffee a la Hilda_.'

Betty froze mid-chew.


	2. Dinner at his

**First kiss, and then some - **sequel to _A Complete Crush_

**A/N: **Thank you all for your generous responses! This chapter is just a little scene depiction.

* * *

**What one should do before proposing (or, the Steps of Love)**

Have dinner with his or her family - this is a chance for them to see what their brother, sister, son or daughter-in-law will be like. It's particularly important if you're very close to your family and are greatly influenced by them.

- Girls like it on top, _Sofia Reyes_

* * *

"If you're free this Friday, it would be great if we could have dinner." Daniel slipped his arms about Betty from behind, kissing her cheek. He'd snuck up behind her in his office as she was setting the bagel and coffee on his desk.

Betty jumped, startled, at the sudden human warmth around her. "Daniel."

"Morning," he said, kissing her again, "and say yes."

Betty rolled her eyes. "Careful, Daniel, the office doesn't exactly know about...us...yet."

Daniel grinned and released her. "How could they not? Looks like I'm going to have to make an official announcement, soon."

"No. Please. Daniel. And Friday would be great," Betty said.

"Cool." he set his briefcase down and fell into his seat behind the desk. "Thanks, Betty." He smiled as he took the bagel.

"Welcome. Um...where are we going on Friday?"

"You'll see," Daniel said, and the familiar slightly smirking smile spread over his face.

* * *

"Wow," Betty said, standing in the impossibly high-ceilinged hall after Daniel had let them in. The walls were wooden panels. On her right a massive oriental goddess-type statue stood before a tall, gold-framed mirror on a black marble topped desk. "Wow. Um - where are we?"

Daniel smiled, edged with a very weak bitterness, remembering Sofia's first words upon entering this place. He shook himself out of it; this was Betty, his best friend and supporter for so long, and now just _his_.

"Guess."

"Um...I don't know. A really rich mansion...in Manhattan?"

"Yup. But _whose_ really rich mansion?"

"I don't know, Daniel. It's totally not my world..."

"Betty."

She turned to meet his eyes, and found them intensely blue and focused on her. He took her hands. "We're both having dinner here. It's your world."

She smiled, feeling a jumpy pleasure. Concerned Daniel was so cute.

Then he leaned forward, kissing her on the mouth, arms encircling her body loosely. As her arms went around his waist and she returned the kiss, he moved his hands to her face, angling his head, and -

He practically _knew_ what was coming next.

"Mrs Meade!" Betty exclaimed, jumping out of the embrace.

"Betty," Claire said, holding her arms out as she approached. "Hello, my dear."

"Er," Betty said, awkwardly moving farther from Daniel. "I'm so sorry, Mrs. Meade. That was totally ru-"

"Don't apologise, Betty." Claire smiled at a flustered Betty. "I mean, this is my son you're with."

Daniel rolled his eyes. "Mom, please."

"This is _your_ really rich mansion?" Betty hissed sideways to Daniel.

Daniel grinned.

"No, it's mine, actually," Claire said, and swept them into the living area.

* * *

The scene was familiar, except this time there was no Bradford on the couch beside Claire. But this time with Betty by his side Daniel felt it was so different as well. He smiled at the woman beside him. There was a constant warmth of love with Betty there, and the feeling -

"Daniel, darling, don't do that," Claire said, cutting into his dreamy thoughts. "Desperately besotted is not your best look."

Daniel blinked.


	3. Dinner at hers

**First kiss, and then some - **sequel to _A Complete Crush_

**A/N: **Apologies for the delay; the Heroes bug does not let go very quickly, it seems. Again, this chapter is another scene depiction. More of a drabble than a story I suppose.

* * *

**Dinner at hers**

"Now Daniel," Betty said. "I think we both know what has to be done."

He looked up from his desk and stared blankly at her.

"This Friday," Betty said, "It's my house."

Daniel smiled. "Great. Although..."

"...yes..."

"I've been to your house before."

"As my boss."

He cocked his head to the side. "Ah. So how will I be introduced this time?"

Betty rolled her eyes. "You can guess that one, genius."

After a short pause, as Betty began to head toward the door of the office, Daniel said, "Wait."

She turned back to him. He had a serious expression on his face, and rising from his desk he came toward her. "When are they going to know, Betty?"

She knew who he was referring to by 'they.'

* * *

**Betty**

It was a tough question. What can I say?

The thing is, I know that 'they' will have to find out sooner or later. Either we tell them or they find out...and splash it all across the news.

I can just imagine the headlines. _Playboy Daniel Meade's Fling with Assistant_, or something horrible. Because the public still thinks Daniel is a playboy, don't they? It's practically expected of him. And plus the press is getting very bored and restless for lack of news in these past months. Where were the Daniel-Meade-girls they had counted on to write about to fill up a corner of Page Six almost every week? If they caught up with this in the wrong way -

God knows what they would write.

But then again, how exactly would we tell them? Maybe Daniel could just hold a little press conference, and go, "Hey, guess what, I'm dating my assistant."

Not exactly romantic.

* * *

Plastering on an assured smile, Betty said, "When we tell them."

"And when is th-"

"Tell you what, Daniel!" Betty exclaimed, cheerfully. "I'll just go and fetch your one o clock now!"

"But Betty, it's elev-."

The door had already closed behind her.

* * *

"So." Ignacio raised his eyebrows at Betty, finishing his preparations for dinner.

"Yes, Papi?"

"Getting serious, are we?"

She smiled.

He rinsed his hands, wiped them on the towel that hung on the kitchen door knob, and sat down at the table, gesturing for Betty to do the same. "He is the one," Ignacio said, but it was more of a question.

"Yes, Papi," Betty said. "He _is_. And don't get started about how he isn't responsible again, he's chan-"

"I wasn't going to," Ignacio said, calmly. "But Betty, if you both feel this way...why haven't you _told_ anyone?"

"I have! Hilda, you, Justin," Betty counted on her fingers, "Oh - Christina! And...er..."

Her dad rolled his eyes. "Ai, you know what I mean, Betty. The general public. You'll have to deal with them too, if you're with someone like Daniel."

Betty bit her lip. "But you know...it's scary." She looked almost like a little girl again, little Betty, and Ignacio smiled with a mixture of pride and gladness and melancholy. Where had his little girl gone? Grown into a successful, happy, strong woman.

"There were a lot of things to be scared of in my marriage too," he said. "But whenever I felt like I couldn't do it, I just looked at your mother's face, and her smile, and then...nothing was too hard."

Betty smiled down at the wooden table.

* * *

"Where _is_ he?" Justin asked, kneeling on the sofa and looking impatiently out the window. As if on cue, Betty's mobile began to ring.

"Hi, Daniel?"

"Hey, Betty," he said, sounding rather harrassed. "I'm sorry I'm late, but I had to - well. Would you mind if I brought Alexis?"

"Er...not at all," Betty said. "Sure. See you soon."

Alexis was drunk. That much was obvious. Though it wasn't really pass-out, leaning-on-shoulder-to-walk drunk, it was far from tipsy. Betty noted with relief and love that Hilda, Justin and Ignacio all looked most understanding and concerned.

During the dinner, as Hilda made interesting if rather choppy conversation with Alexis, Justin interrupting occasionally, Ignacio being a perfect host, Daniel reached for Betty's hand. She turned to look at him, smiling. His blue eyes were apologetic. "I'm sorry to be such a trouble."

"Nonsense," she said. Remembering Papi's words, she looked at him, his face, the angle of his eyebrows, the shape of the slight smile on his mouth. She leaned in closer. "And there's something I think we should tell them."

"Who?" He asked, softly.

"The general public."

He smiled, understanding now. "Are you sure, Betty?"

And then _she_ leaned in and kissed _him_, and he knew. He raised a hand and touched her face softly, shifting his chair closer.

* * *

_p.s. i've tried to make Daniel and Betty kiss each chapter, thus the title of the story._


	4. Telling them all

**First kiss, and then some - **sequel to _A Complete Crush_

**A/N: **I know you guys'll never forgive me. -cries- I shall wrap this story up. Sorry, but I've lost touch with it. D':

* * *

**Telling them all  
**

"Look at them all," Betty whispered. "They all think it's something really important." She gazed down at the faces of the press from her vantage point on the stage, where she and Daniel sat on two single chairs.

"That's because it is," Daniel said.

She smiled weakly, nervous in her knees, all of her joints.

"Okay. Hey, everyone." Daniel spoke into the microphone. The journalists snapped to attention. "Check this out."

He turned and gave Betty a chaste peck on the lips.

Judging by the uproar that spread through out the room, it was anything but chaste to them. She felt a thrill of dread and embarrassment, and looked down, only vaguely aware of Daniel standing them both up. This was horrible. This was her worst _nightmare_.

"Betty," Daniel said firmly, over the shocked mutterings.

He dropped down to one knee. Every set of eyes in the room apart from his widened.

He brought out, then, a small dark blue box from his pocket. There was a collective gasp.

"Will you marry me?"

Somebody in the front row dropped their camera. (The others, of course kept clicking/filming away.)

Betty stared at him, eyes huge. "_What_?"

Daniel grinned lovingly up at her. "Will you do me the honour of taking my hand?"

* * *

A solitary figure in a white pantsuit and pale blonde hair rose and started clapping.

"Mom," Daniel said affectionately.

"Claire," Betty sniffed, wiping a tear from her eye.

Ignacio, Hilda, Justin and Alexis, who'd managed to sneak in despite the strict forbiddances from their daughter/sister/aunt/brother respectively, joined in.

"Dad-sister-nephew-Alexis," Betty laughed, and the newly engaged, blissful couple were surrounded by the applause of the magazine-and-news people who, though slow on the uptake, were admirably enthusiastic once they got started.

* * *

La termina feliz.


End file.
